Asteroid near-Earth

2023 BU was unknown to NASA, or anyone, until last Saturday. Gennadiy Borisov, an amateur astronomer in Crimea, noticed the asteroid from the MARGO Observatory, ...

Farnocchia noted that a genuinely hazardous asteroid would be both larger and brighter than 2023 BU and so would be spotted much farther in advance of its arrival. The asteroid is fairly small — less than 30 feet across, about the size of a truck — and was best visible in the skies to the west of southern Chile. Even if a smaller object like 2023 BU were on track to strike Earth, it would probably disintegrate in the atmosphere, perhaps casting some debris as small meteorites. Most asteroids in the solar system orbit the sun in the region between Mars and Jupiter, more than 3.2 astronomical units — 3.2 times the distance between the sun and Earth — away from and never approaching our planet. The asteroid did not hit Earth but was one of the closest approaches ever by such an object, hurtling past Earth at just 2,200 miles above its surface, according to a news release from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The asteroid, named 2023 BU, was scheduled to pass over the southern tip of South America at 7:27 p.m.

There's no reason for alarm — but, a NASA engineer calls it "one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded." It will be only 2200 ...

[NASA's Scout system](https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/scout/#/), which assesses potential hazards, quickly determined that 2023 BU wouldn't hit Earth but "make an extraordinarily close approach," said Farnocchia, who developed the system. But this asteroid is also coming much closer to our planet: some of those other objects stayed tens or hundreds of thousands of miles away. [announced the close passage](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-system-predicts-small-asteroid-to-pass-close-by-earth-this-week). [discovering a number of comets and asteroids](http://www.skaw.sk/interview-with-gennadiy-borisov.html), including the first confirmed [interstellar comet](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/2I-Borisov/in-depth/). There's no reason to panic — an asteroid will shoot past our planet harmlessly Thursday night, NASA says. [through the air](https://www.distance.to/New-York/Las-Vegas#:~:text=The%20shortest%20distance%20(air%20line,2%2C230.61%20mi%20(3%2C589.82%20km).&text=The%20shortest%20route%20between%20New,44h%2046min.).

About the size of a bus, the space rock whipped over the southern tip of South America.

"2023 BU is a recently discovered object supposedly the size of a small bus which must have passed by the Earth thousands of times before. But come down in size to something that is, say, 150m across and our inventory has gaps. The asteroid will then complete one orbit every 425 days." It would have produced a spectacular fireball, however. "However, there are likely many asteroids out there that remain undiscovered that could penetrate the atmosphere and hit the surface to cause significant damage - indeed many scientists think we could be due such an event." This time it passes by only 2,200 miles from the Earth - just 1% of the distance to the moon - a celestial near miss.

Asteroid 2023 BU will pass Earth at a distance of 2178 miles (3506 kilometers) on Thursday (Jan. 26) — closer than satellites in geostationary orbit.

Follow us [@Spacedotcom](https://twitter.com/spacedotcom) (opens in new tab), or on [best telescopes](https://www.space.com/15693-telescopes-beginners-telescope-reviews-buying-guide.html) and [best binoculars](https://www.space.com/26021-best-binoculars.html) might help you get started on the path to right optics. Astronomer Gianluca Masi will be hosting a free livestream of the asteroid's pass on the [project's website](https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2023/01/23/near-earth-asteroid-2023-bu-extremely-close-encounter-online-observation-26-jan-2023/) (opens in new tab) or [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@GianMasiVirtualTelescope) (opens in new tab) on Thursday (Jan. That's because its small size means it would likely break up and incinerate in [Earth's atmosphere](https://www.space.com/17683-earth-atmosphere.html). Luckily for those of us who aren't veteran asteroid chasers, the Virtual Telescope Project will stream the whole thing. [@bretttingley](https://twitter.com/BrettTingley) (opens in new tab). [website](https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2023/01/23/near-earth-asteroid-2023-bu-extremely-close-encounter-online-observation-26-jan-2023/) (opens in new tab). 21) by astronomer Gennadiy Borisov at the MARGO Observatory in Crimea. ET: The Virtual Telescope Project's webcast of asteroid 2023 BU is now scheduled for 5:45 p.m. [asteroid](https://www.space.com/51-asteroids-formation-discovery-and-exploration.html) 2023 BU make its close encounter with our planet thanks to the Virtual Telescope Project. Update for 5:15 p.m. 26) at 4:17 p.m.

A newly discovered asteroid the size of a box truck made one of the closest passes of our planet ever recorded.

Before Thursday’s close pass, the asteroid had a circular orbit that took about 359 days to complete around the sun. “In fact, this is one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded.” Under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union, the organization is responsible for the identification, designation and orbital data for such celestial objects. This distance was well within the orbit of global satellites. Borisov had previously discovered the The small near-Earth asteroid, called 2023 BU, zipped over the southern tip of South America at 7:27 p.m.

There are over 31000 near-Earth asteroids out in space, and many never pose a threat to our planet. Here's why close encounters shouldn't freak you out.

The experiment’s success will likely pave the way for even more robust planetary defense systems in the future. And if Bennu does beat the odds, it doesn’t mean planetary doom is inevitable. That’s well within the range of artificial satellites, and about 236,655 miles closer to Earth than the Moon. The ESA’s And when there’s a real-life space object coming close to Earth, you won’t have to look far to find headlines about it. It’s not just size that makes an asteroid or comet a potential risk for planet Earth. Earth itself is one AU from the Sun, which equals roughly 150 million miles. But it never comes near enough to smash our planet to smithereens — or even quietly burn up in the atmosphere. [risk list](https://neo.ssa.esa.int/risk-list) has 1,443 objects of note, though it tracks both big and small Earth-bound objects — some too small to even make it through the atmosphere. [defines](https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html) near-Earth objects (NEOs) as natural space objects that orbit within 1.3 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun. NEOs are a group consisting of all the natural objects that come close to our planet — namely asteroids and comets. [says](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-system-predicts-small-asteroid-to-pass-close-by-earth-this-week) that this will be one of the closest recorded encounters a near-Earth object has ever made.

Near-Earth Asteroid 2023 BU, captured on 26 Jan. 2023 by Gianluca Masi around its flyby time and shared live with the community.

But we were lucky: at some point the sky improved and, while it was far from being decent, we could spot and track this rock, sharing the experience in real-time with a very huge international audience. At the imaging time, asteroid 2023 BU was at about 37.000 km from us, significantly closer than geostationary satellites and was still approaching our planet. The minimum distance (10.000 km, less than 3% of the average lunar distance, 1/4 of the distance of geostationary satellites) was reached on 27 Jan.